Professor Discusses Firearms Licensing, Gun Hobbyists

In the United States, there are more firearms and ammunition dealers than McDonald’s — over 14,500 of them.

In fact, Maricopa County has the most dealers for all licensing types — that’s guns, destructive devices and ammunition — with over 1,100 dealers here. The next biggest county is Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located, and they have 400 fewer dealers there.

Now, this doesn’t, and can’t, take into account the number of hobbyists that manufacture guns and ammo on their own. Hobbyists like Mesa-man Douglas Haig, who was charged last week by the FBI for conspiring to sell and manufacture armor-piercing bullets without a license.

The agency said he sold 720 rounds of tracer bullets, along with the armor-piercing bullets, to the Las Vegas shooter who murdered 58 people.

Even though Haig had that amount of ammunition on hand, he still was considered a “hobbyist” and sold casually out of his house and at gun shows.

Here to talk about it is Trent Steidley, an assistant professor at the University of Denver who studies Federal Firearms Licensing.